Gavin Newsom knows the popular image of him is of a smooth talker with slicked-back hair, the wealthy liberal who co-owns a vineyard.
He knows, regarding the presidential ambitions he’s hardly hiding, that the biggest question he would face out of the gate is whether he could sell Americans on wanting California to represent their future rather than seeing it as the place where the wackiest liberal dreams go to run wild.
The redistricting fight that Newsom and the state legislature are launching Monday could, he and his inner circle believe, give him all the rebuttals he needs.
I agree that this type of rhetoric is bad for the long term health and safety of trans people. I believe the move was done to boost Newsom’s own presidential chances in red and purple areas by creating a scapegoat of trans people.
I feel bad for my friends that are trans because the culture in America, mostly outside of younger generations, has many bigoted attitudes towards trans individuals. I think hearing Bill Maher talk about his bigoted views on people transitioning shocked me at how slow/little the older generations have moved on being accepting of trans people. Maher being a left-of-center boomer too didn’t give me much confidence that there are not swaths of people with even worse takes.
Unfortunately I believe you are right that it will take decades for things to truly get better for trans people since many of these older generations seem gridlocked in their views. I feel educating younger generations is what is most important in the push back against bigotry, since people are not born bigots but become that way.
Edit: I don’t think it’s a good thing that people hold these views. Personally, when I see anti-trans bias I call it out in that moment.
I feel that many of these bigots have not met a trans person before, so they feel emboldened to strawperson trans people as boogeymen.
His rhetoric isn’t just bad, it’s disastrous because it will likely encourage more people to follow suit in being willing to throw my people away. More violence and murders like what happened with Nex Benedict will become the norm. He won’t pull fascists away from the fascist party, he will lose vote from trans people though. You can’t expect us to support him if he is saying the exact same things as the full on fascists.
Sadly this isn’t just a problem with boomers and other older generations, it’s taking root in the younger ones too. Which makes it all the harder for us just to live normal lives. Myself and all of my trans friends are terrified, we have to rely on deeply unhealthy coping mechanisms just to survive. It is leading to more self harm and suicides in the trans community. Newsom and other democrats embracing this hateful ideology will, and is, lead to more suicides because it isolates us.
It will be decades of horrors for my people, ones that many of us will not live through. That’s why it’s so important to call out his bullshit now, before we see how awful it will reach.